


Like Ripping Flesh From Bone

by cazmalfoy



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Kurtbastian end-game, M/M, Pre-Slash, Soul Mate Bracelets, soul mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 02:45:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8186353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cazmalfoy/pseuds/cazmalfoy
Summary: For as long as Kurt could remember, he'd had a steel bracelet around his wrist. No one had been able to remove it, and his mother had insisted that it was a soul mate bracelet; something only the other half of his soul would have as well.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really a huge fan of soul mate AU's, but I found this prompt on pinterest and it just would not let me go.
> 
> The Kurtbastian is pre-slash, and the main pairing (if there was one) in this fic is Klaine. 
> 
> I'm not sure if there will be more in this 'verse, so I have marked this as complete, but I have a feeling there could. Both Kurt and Sebastian are pushy muses, so they might get their way. Watch this space.
> 
> Oh, and it's nowhere near as gory and gross as the title makes it sound.
> 
> ***

_ “You’re special, Kurt. Never let anyone tell you anything different.” _

_ “I don’t wanna be special. I want to be just like everyone else.” _

_ “No, you don’t. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but this metal, this bracelet, makes you better than them. It gives you something they don’t have.” _

_ “Like what, mommy?” _

_ “A soul mate. Someone who was made for you, and you alone.” _

_ “But how will I know who he is?” _

_ “Trust me. When you meet him, you’ll know.” _

_ *** _

Kurt shut off the engine and glanced up at the Lima Bean. It was crowded - so crowded that he’d been forced to park in the lot across the street.

Taking a deep breath, Kurt closed his eyes and leant his head back. He didn’t know why his mother’s words had chosen then of all days to come back to him.

He remembered the conversation as though it had been yesterday, even though it had been over ten years.

With a sigh, he pushed his sleeve up and glanced down at his wrist. The dull band of steel-looking metal had been around his right wrist for as long as Kurt could remember. There was nothing special looking about it, and for a long time Kurt had hated its presence.

No one could say where it had come from. All Kurt knew was that it hadn’t been there since birth; he had seen pictures of himself as a baby, so he knew for certain. According to his mom and dad, the bracelet had appeared just after his first birthday.

At first, his mom had assumed Burt had bought the bracelet, and Burt had assumed the same of his wife. Neither of them had been mad; it was a thoughtful - if not weird - gift.

But then they had tried to remove it.

There was no clasp, no trick latch, no opening. Nothing that would indicate how the bracelet could be removed.

That had been when the Hummel’s had started to question where the bracelet had come from. Neither Burt nor Elizabeth had given the gift to their only child, so where had it appeared from?

No one they had taken Kurt to had been able to remove the bracelet. No blacksmith, jewellers or doctor. They tried for months, until they couldn’t take it any longer and had accepted that the bracelet was a part of Kurt.

When Kurt had asked his dad why they had given up, Burt had told him that they’d needed to. Every Time someone touched the bracelet, Kurt had screamed in agony until he had been released.

Kurt had understood that completely. Even now, sixteen years later few people had touched the bracelet except himself; it hurt too much.

Over the years, as Kurt had grown up, the bracelet had adjusted. It was still the same colour, and still fit him as perfectly as it had as a child. The metal seemed to automatically adjust with the changes to Kurt’s physique. It sat firmly against his wrist, neither dangling nor digging into his skin.

It fit perfectly.

As a kid, Kurt had been bullied for wearing a girly bracelet and refusing to take it off. Teachers knew he couldn’t, but the students didn’t care. All they knew was that a boy was wearing a girly bracelet.

Despite his mom’s words about soul mates, Kurt had spent a long time resenting whoever put the bracelet there and had taken to wearing long sleeves, even in the summer, to hide the bracelet.

Then his mom had died and Kurt had stopped caring what other people thought about him.

Elizabeth had loved him and the bracelet. Kurt wasn’t going to hide it away any longer.

From the moment he had decided to stop hiding the bracelet, Kurt had been surprised to find out that no one really cared about it. Whether it was because they had realised they could now torment him for being the gay kid without a mom instead, Kurt wasn’t sure. But they had stopped commenting and trying to touch the bracelet, so he didn’t care.

As the years passed, Kurt stopped resenting the bracelet’s presence. In fact, he had grown to love it. It reminded him of his mom, and since he didn’t have many memories of her, he would cherish the thing that made her insist he was special.

Kurt pushed his sleeve back down and grabbed his bag, before getting out of the car. It was unusual going to the Lima Bean on his own, but he needed his caffeine intake and Blaine was at Dalton, which was two hours away.

He couldn’t wait.

Thinking about Blaine made Kurt reach into his pocket and pull out his cell phone. Nothing. His boyfriend was spending time with the Warblers - something about inviting them to opening night of West Side Story - so Kurt wasn’t too worried. He just wished Blaine had thought to send him a text randomly. Was a bit of spontaneity too much to ask for occasionally?

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice someone in his path until he had walked right into them. 

“Oh my god!” Kurt exclaimed, finally looking up from his phone with wide eyes. “I am so sorry!”

The woman he had walked into - African American, with slightly greying hair and a wrinkle-free face - regarding him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. “It’s not a problem, Kurt Hummel.”

Kurt frowned in confusion. “I’m sorry, have we met?” he asked, even though he was sure of the answer. He had been living in Lima his entire life and had never seen this woman before.

The woman offered him a smile; the kind that hinted she knew more than he did. She shook her head. “No, but I know all about you.”

Over the years, Kurt had grown pretty good at avoiding his bracelet being touched by another person. He remembered exactly what that pain felt like and had no desire to experience it willingly.

She moved too fast for him to stop - faster than Kurt would have ever thought possible. Her fingers curled around Kurt’s elbow, and with her free hand, she pushed his sleeve back, revealing the bracelet innocently sitting around his wrist.

“You haven’t met him yet,” she observed, running her fingers over the bracelet before Kurt could stop her.

Kurt yelped and tried to pull out of her grip, but she was too strong. He felt like he was on fire; like his body was being torn apart from the inside out. “Please stop,” he begged, tears forming at the corner of his eyes.

Much to his relief, she stopped touching the metal and, a second later, released his arm. Kurt didn’t know what kept him standing there instead of running, but he knew he couldn’t move. “Who are you?” he asked, half afraid of what the answer might be.

The woman ignored him. “Soul mate bracelets are rare.” There was an awe to her voice that Kurt hadn’t heard before.

Kurt’s eyes widened. “Soul mates?” he echoed, memories of his mother coming rushing back to him. He had never believed her stories about the bracelet being a soul mate indicator; Kurt had always assumed that she had just been trying to make him feel better after being bullied.

“According to legend, two souls destined to be together will be born with identical bracelets,” she told him. “When these souls meet for the first time, the locks will open and the bracelets can be removed. Only when the bracelets have been removed will you know the name of the other half of your soul.”

From further down the street, a truck blared its horn, making Kurt jump in surprise. When he looked back to the woman who had accosted him, she was nowhere to be seen.

“What the hell?” Kurt murmured under his breath, looking around wildly. The woman was nowhere to be seen. How the hell had she vanished so fast?

Kurt was still feeling shook up as he crossed the street and stepped into the coffee shop. How could one stranger’s babbling words make him feel so off kilter.

With his mind half focused on analysing what the stranger had said, Kurt distractedly ordered his coffee, before stepping to the side as he waited.

“I have a boyfriend.” Blaine’s voice seemed to float across the coffee shop and Kurt turned around in surprise, his eyes scanning the room.

Even though Blaine was sitting with his back to Kurt, it wasn’t difficult to recognise his dark haired boyfriend, sitting near the pillar, opposite a teenager who could only be a Dalton Academy Warbler (the blazer gave it away).

As soon as Kurt’s eyes landed on the new Warbler, pain shot up his right arm, starting at his wrist. It was a different pain to the one he experienced when others touched the bracelet. That felt like his body was trying to push away the other person’s touch. This felt like the metal was being pulled from his body agonisingly slowly.

Kurt had to bite his lip to stop himself from yelling out loud in the middle of the coffee shop. Desperately, he squeezed his arm around his upper forearm, hoping it would stem the pain, but it didn’t work.

The burn lasted less than a minute, but it felt like the longest minute of Kurt’s life. As it lessened, he nervously released the grip he had on his arm, sighing in relief when the feeling didn’t return as he did.

Kurt flexed the fingers of his right wrist, trying to restore feeling and rid himself of the tingling that remained. As he moved his wrist, he frowned. The bracelet had come unclasped.

Before Kurt could stop it, the metal slid off his wrist and fell to the floor with a clatter, attracting the attention of a few people.

Feeling numb, Kurt bent down and scooped the bracelet from the floor. Holding it in his hand, Kurt was struck by how heavy it actually was. While it had been around his wrist, it had been easy to forget that it was there. Over the years, it had grown to be a constant presence and comfort he knew he could rely on.

Now, without it, Kurt felt strangely naked.

All of a sudden, the woman’s words came back to him, echoing around his head as though she were standing beside him. ‘ _ Only when the bracelets have been removed will you know the name of the other half of your soul.’ _

With shaking hands, Kurt held the bracelet up so he could see. He let out a breath he hadn’t even realised he’d been holding when he saw that, just like the woman had said, there was a name engraved on the inside of the steel.

Kurt swallowed thickly when he read the name. It wasn’t Blaine’s, he realised, his heart sinking into his stomach.

“Kurt?” the barista called, snapping his attention to the present.

He shook his head, trying to anchor himself in what was happening around him. “Yeah, sorry, that’s me,” he apologised, stepping forward and accepting the drink.

Still feeling in a little bit of a daze, Kurt made his way over to Blaine and his new friend.

The other Warbler - the new one Kurt had never seen before - was wearing a pained expressed as he clutched at his left arm, in a very similar to matter to how Kurt had.

It was impossible. Kurt knew that what the woman had told him couldn’t be true - soul mates didn’t exist. And, if they did, Kurt had been sure his would have been Blaine. But as he stood there, watching the pain slowly ease from Blaine’s attractive friend’s face, Kurt couldn’t stop the niggling idea working through his head that maybe - _ maybe  _ \- she had a point.

Somehow, Kurt knew that this stranger was the one whose name was etched on the bracelet now clutched in Kurt’s hand.

“Kurt!” Blaine exclaimed in surprise when he realised his boyfriend was standing beside them. “We were just talking about you. This is…”

“Sebastian,” Kurt finished for him, his voice coming out strangled. “Sebastian Smythe.” He dropped the bracelet onto the table in front of the Warbler. “I think this belongs to you.”

Green eyes widened as the teenager - Sebastian - stared at the bracelet on the table. None of them spoke.

Slowly - almost as though it was happening in slow motion - Sebastian uncurled his fingers from his arm. Just like it had happened with Kurt, as he moved the bracelet around his wrist came loose. Sebastian must have better reflexes than Kurt, because he managed to catch his before it fell to the table.

The bracelet he held in his hand was identical to Kurt’s in every way; as though they had been made from the same element, and were seconds away from reconnecting.

“I assume this is yours, then,” Sebastian drawled, his voice sending shivers down Kurt’s spine. He glanced at the inside of the bracelet, before looking up, meeting the countertenor’s gaze for the first time. Kurt knew in that moment that he was lost forever. There was no going back from this meeting. The world only consisted of him and Sebastian.

Sebastian’s final words cemented the idea that the crazy woman had been right. Each bracelet would be inscribed with the name of the other; only visible when the bracelet could be removed.

“Kurt Hummel.”

***


End file.
